Sapelo Skincare founders offer healing without harm

In 2011, as Cindy Edwards and Stephanie Duttenhaver shared a champagne lunch with the late author Pat Conroy, they realized they were a dynamic duo. Having just convinced the elusive writer to headline the Savannah Book Festival, they believed there was nothing they couldn’t do as a team. “We were on a real high,” Edwards said.

Their next joint adventure was a bit more challenging. Frustrated with the choices on the market, the friends decided to create a high-end line of skincare inspired by the South. The same year Conroy appeared as keynote speaker at the Book Festival, Sapelo Skincare made its debut.

Manufactured in small batches at a certified cosmetic laboratory in Savannah, Sapelo is currently sold in boutiques nationwide and SaksFifthAvenue.com. In creating the line, Edwards and Duttenhaver were motivated by their own struggles to find the right products for their respective skin concerns.

“I like to say it was birthdays,” Duttenhaver said. “Eventually you get to the place in your life where you start noticing that you are aging and the signs of aging start to show in your face.”

But neither of them wanted to rely on popular anti-aging treatments that seemed to damage the skin such as micro needling, dermabrasion and Fraxel lasers. Instead, they sought gentler methods to repair and restore the skin.